A Constable Falls Foul of the Bench.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 109, 9 May 1895, Page 4

A Constable Falls Foul of the Bench.

I ♦ I Large bundles of miscellaneous goods were conveyed into the Biohmond (Viotoria) . Court on the 17th ult., being the proceeds . of a series of robberies alleged to have been I committed at St. Ignatius' Roman Catholic Church Presbytery by Jules Delots, a Frenoh army pensioner. Delots was accused of ttenling the goods, and a charge of receiving was preferred againdt a young woman named Lily O'Learv, a resident of , Kilraore, alleged (o be his paramour The male prisoner pleaded Guilty,. He had been employed as cook bj tho clergyman connected with the church, and it was alleged tbat during the month of Maroh he surreptitiously removed the articles in small parcels to a house in Little Smith-strict, Pitzroy, ocenpied by himself and the foaale prisoner. The latter, according to the evidence, pawned a quantity of tho goods in Fitzroy for the purpose of raieing sufiioient money to enable her to visit her mother, who was dying at KiJmoro On the Bth inst. Senior Constable Daly and Plain-clothes Constable Coakley, armed with a searoh warrant, visited Delots' place of reeidenco, and there recovered all the property produced in Conrfc. O'Leary said to her male companion, " I often told you not to be bringing these things here," and Delots replied, " Well, you are innooent; yon had nothing whatever to do with the robbery." Delots pleaded that he was not altogether responsible for hiß actions, as he had received wounds in the battle of Grarelotte which affected hiß mind. An unpleasant contretemps occurred while I Constable Coakley was under examination. Mr. Keogh, P.M., took exception to the witness saying the prisoners had made admissions Tiithont recounting the actual words they uttered. Constable Coakley said he could not give the exact words ; and when at another Btage he was again rebuked by Mr. Keogh for " generalising " his evidence, he replied that "he was not going to swear to anything a person might want to put into his mouth." Mr. Keogh — I think your position should deter you from making a remark of that character. Constable Coakley— Yonr Worship always find fault with my evidence /when I appear before you. Mr. Keogh— You will get yourself into trouble if you are not very careful. Constable Coakley — I can't help it, sir ; I must speak. 1 give my evidenoe as truthfully and accurately as I oould, and yet there is.fault found with me. Mr. Keogh, with some warmth, said he would not allow any witness to diotate to him. He felt competent to judge when a witness was giving his evidenoe properly, and wonld insist, as far as possible, on the ruleß being strictly observed. Both prisoners wore committed for trial.